Foreign Influx Gives Annual Tech Event an International Flavor

The Hackney House, meant to showcase East London’s creativity, covers an entire Austin block and will host talks and mixers during the technology conference.Credit
Ben Sklar for The New York Times

Going to the South by Southwest technology, music and film festival has long been about discovering the next big thing.

It is where many tech enthusiasts learned to use a new messaging service called Twitter. It was the first place many heard Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg speak. More than a few investors have arrived at the sprawling conference in Austin, Tex., in search of interesting young companies, particularly in social media. And it doesn’t hurt if that young company rents a house and serves lots of free drinks.

But this year, conference attendees may have to think a little more globally. Many Silicon Valley companies aren’t making the trip. Instead, the nifty new thing that captures the attention and social calendars of attendees could be from South Korea, Brazil, Europe or Africa.

Thanks in part to Facebook spending as much as $19 billion on WhatsApp, a messaging app made by a Silicon Valley company that was relatively unknown in the United States but had tremendous adoption outside of it, the start-up world is learning to look globally for new ideas and fresh ways to make money.

One place to look may be among WhatsApp competitors. Hahn Ryu, the project coordinator for the Korean start-ups at the conference, said that the rapid growth of companies like KakaoTalk and Line, messaging apps that have become popular in parts of Asia, have ignited something of a fever.

“A few years ago, most people wanted to get hired by Samsung,” he said, referring to people in South Korea. “And now, people are showing more interest in starting their own companies.”

Hugh Forrest, the director of the interactive portion of SXSW, as the festival is known, said attendees had registered from 74 different countries, up from 54 last year.

“It is reflective of the growing global start-up market that we’re all vaguely aware of,” he said.

The conference’s international flavor can be seen in several panels, including one titled “The Next Steve Jobs May Be From Africa,” and another called “Seizing the Mobile Opportunity in Latin America.” In addition, several countries, with the support of their governments, are erecting houses and pop-up villages for conference attendees.

The Hackney House, for example, which its creators see as a microcosm of East London’s creativity, covers an entire block in downtown Austin and will host talks, workshops and mixers. Similarly, Casa Brasil, funded by a grant from the Brazilian government, will devote a house to showing off the latest from that country’s start-up world.

“Previously, a lot of international people were coming to see what they can absorb and bring back to their country,” said Phillip Klein, founder of a Brazilian web analytics start-up, SiteApps, who will be participating in Casa Brasil. “But this year, they are showing off their companies.”

Mr. Klein said that the interest seemed to be reciprocated from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors. “Five years ago, people would say, ‘tell me about soccer and samba,’ and now, instead of asking about Carnival, they want to know about our big Internet population and smartphone adoption,” he said.

The international slant is a drift away from the historical roots of the conference and perhaps to a new generation of international start-ups. In past years, SXSW has been a marketing bonanza for social media companies, including Twitter, Foursquare, GroupMe, Path and Highlight.

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Perhaps it’s because unlike the aspiring start-ups from other countries, they have already been noticed. That was the case with app-creator Adam Ludwin. Last year, Mr. Ludwin rented a Korean taco truck from midnight to 4 a.m. and gave free food away to anyone who downloaded and installed his app, a photo-sharing service called Albumatic.

He said it was “incredibly useful for us, but in a surprising way — not as marketing, but as feedback.” Eventually, the app changed into something else and now, Mr. Ludwin is working on a new service called Ether. But he has no plans to trot it out in Austin this year.

“We can do a lot of learning without going to SXSW,” he said in an email message.

Even Foursquare, a company that dominated SXSW in recent years with lavish parties, afternoon pop-up games and free coffee and breakfast tacos for attendees, decided not to participate this year.

“We’ve got some things we’re going to roll out in the springtime, so we decided to keep people and resources in N.Y.C. and S.F. focused on building the future instead of the massive presence we’ve had at SXSW in the past,” said Brendan Lewis, a spokesman for the company.

GroupMe, the messaging application that was acquired by Skype in 2011, had a big presence in Austin for the last two years, handing out free grilled-cheese sandwiches and cups of beer while encouraging attendees to download their application.

This year, the company “just didn’t have the bandwidth to throw a party and give out sandwiches down there,” said Chris Connolly, a spokesman for GroupMe.

Mr. Forrest, who organizes the technology portion of SXSW, said that while it was “frustrating and disappointing” that companies that had helped put the conference on the map as a place for innovative social technologies were skipping this year, he was encouraged by the influx of new entrepreneurs.

“I think it’s good that there’s a little bit of churn,” he said. “What you want is fresh blood.”

Mr. Forrest said that although SXSW technology conferences had largely focused on social media, much of this year’s programming centered on privacy, online security and surveillance.

And Silicon Valley’s hot companies aren’t completely ignoring the conference. The founders of the anonymous messaging app companies Secret and Whisper, for example, plan to speak on a panel Friday and will be at the conference all weekend.

Also, Edward J. Snowden, the former government contractor who has leaked thousands of documents related to government surveillance, and Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, are expected to speak at SXSW via videoconference.

“It’s O.K. if there isn’t a hot new app,” said Mr. Forrest. “The dark side of social media means this is a time for a conversation and debate on how we should move forward.”

A version of this article appears in print on March 7, 2014, on Page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Foreign Influx Gives Annual Tech Event an International Flavor. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe